


The General and the Sea Witch

by Alexia_Imriel_Courcel



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-06
Updated: 2018-02-06
Packaged: 2019-03-14 17:51:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13595238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alexia_Imriel_Courcel/pseuds/Alexia_Imriel_Courcel





	The General and the Sea Witch

It was mid-winter and with the night’s drawing in closer General Armitage Hux, was grateful for the warmth of the huge fire in the officer’s mess hall.  Forte Haven was a bleak desolate place, and that the newly minted General had been stationed there, at times seemed more like a punishment than the privilege he was assured that it was. 

General Hux, was the youngest man to have ever taken the position of General in the First Order’s navies and was assured that after a year-long station at the port of Haven; he would be given command of a vessel.  One that was to be stationed somewhere in the sea capped boarder between Albion and the Resistance’s many bases, upon the mainland of Gaulle.  Their homeland some mere 30 nautical miles away.  The evening’s meal had been over, some several hours ago and with it the supposed day’s duties.  So relaxing back into the winged back armchair; he twirled his brandy, occasionally raising it to his mouth as much to smell as to sip at it. 

It had been an uneventful 8 months, and although he knew it was standard to be given such a ‘safe’ Naval Forte as a first command, the boredom infuriated him.  General Hux longed to be able to cut his teeth on the more action-packed stations. This tedious quiet, of the heavily protected deep-water harbour grating on his nerves.  He longed to be more use than the relocation of land-based supplies.  Resenting sourly, the thought that the lessons he had taken in battle strategy were now going to waste.  Reasoning though, that thankfully only a mere four months until he would be able to utilise them once more.

Armitage Hux, unlike many of the other officers, had been shaped for this role since a child.  There had been no early years, to waste deciding on his future role, under his retired and now very wealthy father.  No, the now commandant Brendol Hux, had seen a weakness in his son from day one, and like any supposedly good father had worked to hammer something greater from his ‘weak-willed boy’.  Creating the man who now stood ready, rumoured to be someone to watch; a man with ambitions.  A man, who would if gossip was correct; rise to even higher levels of command than his father. 

General Hux was dwelling on that with smug satisfaction, when a commotion came from the stone flagged corridor outside and suddenly a runner burst into the room.  He appeared to be a young lad of about eleven.  His cheeks flushed to a ruddy red, from the exertion and the chill night air, and his clothing in complete disarray at the excitement.  There was no salute, and all protocol was gone as he piped his call, with breathless excitement into the room.

“The Resistance! Sir! they’ve landed in the bay below!”

Around him more junior offices were flinging aside their brandy glasses.  Reaching to refasten belts and hurrying to their rooms to redress in combat fatigues and coats. Hux, dressed as always to befit his rank; simply stood ready. The dark green; almost black of his officer’s jacket, still as impeccable as the moment he had donned it this morning.  He took more details from the lad, before sending him down to the kitchens to warm himself.  Instructing him to inform cook he was to be given a meal, and a tot of brandy for the cold, congratulating the lad on a job well done. 

It was then a matter of sending off runners of his own to alert the other nearby Fortes.  Unwilling to risk alerting the sneaky devils in the bay below, by lighting signal fires.  Discreetly signalling the nearby battle cruiser to reposition itself into the entrance to the harbour and station itself ready.  They would trap the foul scum, prevent them from escape, force them against the nearby rocks, or to land on the beaches.

By dawn all men were stationed below, and the cliffs had been thoroughly scoured for enemies; but to no avail.  His second in command a Captain Phasma; a tall young man who kept himself to himself; stood atop of the cliff.  Ready to lead the land troupes in assault, should they need it.  The pale and watery predawn light, showed a small ship nearby it’s masts gone.  Destroyed possibly by battle possibly by the foul winter weather.  There was a small landing craft.  Though careful exploration had shown it to be empty the inhabitants long since faded into the undergrowth of the nearby cliffs. Though always the master tactician; Hux stationed watchers for them anyway. 

If they were hiding in the thick gorse that covered the scrawling countryside, they would have to break cover at some point to make for land; or possibly try to return to their ship.  Deciding that he would rather lose the enemy ship than see it reclaimed, the signal was given to sink it and the boom of cannon fire sounded.  Echoing through the bay, though none in answer from the Resistance ship.  It must have been in far worse shape than it looked to have not been able to even muster a show of defence. 

The great iron shot hit the ship, splintering a massive hole through the prow of the ship.  Two more and the ship listed.  It would be beginning to take on water he realised and tasked his men to deal with the escapees.

“They abandon their ships like rats.  I expect every man to do his duty, you will put them down like the vermin they are; but observe the correct protocols.”

Besides him a younger officer drew his cutlass; ready to lead the assault.  Repeating Hux’s order louder and chiding his men to be ready.  Hux watching as a handful of men still aboard the ship; reach the rails.  Chivvied to escape, by a darkly robed figure, his sabre easily running through any stragglers who though the ship safer than the sea.  He was a man Hux quickly recognised.  Commander Ren, the illusive leader of Albion’s finest troops; the Knights of Ren. 

Lord Kylo Ren was an enigma to himself.  Born, into nobility, he was a self-proclaimed warrior of sorts. Supreme Leader Snoke had managed to win him and his band of mercenaries over to the First Order’s cause some years ago and although Hux had not worked with the man yet.  He had heard stories of both his prowess in battle and his headstrong nature.  Both had seemed massively exaggerated, until now.  Now as he watched the man catapult off a rail to finish off the last escapee, he grimaced in annoyance at his actions.  It was common enough to kill the able seamen, but to dispense with the officers before questioning was stupid.  Almost, he shook his head when he watched Kylo Ren toss the last body over the side, before standing expectantly. 

He was arrogant enough to expect Hux to waste time and send a boat for him, he realised. In a fit barely hidden of temper at the wasted carnage that the Knight had wrought, General Hux almost ordered his men back to the Forte.  Stopping himself only at the very last moment from doing something he would later regret.  He ordered his men to use the nearby resistance boat to fetch the man. 

Six able men climbed aboard.  Each manning an oar apiece, as Hux waited patiently on shore.  Alert to all possible danger, and constantly scanning the beaches for any new risks.  The sun had climbed higher now from its pre-dawn position and under actual sunlight; a grey lump further out along the beach caught his attention.  Making him frown, as he picked his way over to it. 

It was probably just a seal.  It would have been a simple thing to send one of his men to inspect it; but for some reason he found himself drawn to it.  His legs seemingly moved of their own accord, and as he drew closer.  Signalling for his men to wait he realised it was human, and female.  She lay half into the water.  The soft waves lapping at her legs, her strange clothing soaked against her pale skin.  It seemed impossible after her being laid there unnoticed for so long; but as he drew closer he realised by the gentle rise and fall of her breasts that she was taking impossibly shallow breathes.  Somehow despite the chill, she was still alive. 

By now the rowboat had reached the ship.  The dark clad figure scaling the walls to climb nimbly into the boat; whilst on the beach; Hux pulled hair back from the girl’s face.  Her hair despite the damp, was an obvious fire red.  A far more brazen shade of ginger than his own, and as he touched it; far more beautiful.  Below her eyes were closed, darker lashes kissing the peach of her cheeks. She had to have been in the water long enough that she should be freezing, but her skin was unmarked by goose bumps.  Her lips instead of being blue to the cold, were a beautiful shade of berry red and her skin where it showed, was almost porcelain.  White and translucent, the blush of her blue veins clearly visible under the soft skin of her wrists, despite the cold that should have hidden it.  There was a mystery here he realised.  The only clue to her being there was an ugly purple mark, to her temple and dark blood leaking slow strands into the retreating tide. 

Foot falls fell behind him.  Hux instinctively knew when he turned he would find the Knight behind him.  Instead choosing to wait patiently for his feet to come into his peripheral vision and lower himself to him.  The dark form crouched besides him and black gloves, equally as dark as his own reached forwards.  Touching her forehead where it was marked and to his shock he gasped when a red glow emanated from the ends of the Knights fingers.  Searing closed the spit at her temple and soothing the bruise. 

Witchcraft!  His brain supplied for his disbelieving eyes.  Chiding himself quickly afterwards to ignore that thought.  Superstitious nonsenses such as, witchcraft, mythological powers, and magical sea creatures were the place of the common soldier beneath him, not an educated officer like himself.  There had to be a scientific reason behind all of this.   

Despite this General Hux was relieved when her breathing deepened.  At once she seemed more settled even to Hux; who put aside anymore thoughts of her speedy recovery as hallucinations.  Caused by lack of sleep. 

Firmly tasking himself to try and grab an extra hour or two of rest tonight.  Her breathing became surer; less like a shallow reedy whine.   Each breath followed by a longer exhale that showed on the swell of her breasts. 

Without asking for help, the senior Knight scooped lower.  Reaching to pick her up from the wet sands and cradle her in his arms.  Never once uttering a word to Hux, or anyone else as he climbed the steep path towards the Forte.  Stoically carrying her at an even, but hurried pace.    

Shrugging his shoulders, Hux followed, ordering one of his officers to follow Lord Ren.  For some inexplicable reason not happy to leave her completely alone with him; or any man for that matter.  Frowning to himself, as he wondered not for the first time; where she had come from.  Once he reached his forte, General Hux quickly remembered the task he had set out to; and signalled the battle cruiser to finish scuttling the Resistance vessel.  Moving aside to return his own room and order a bath, so he could strip the sand dusted, and salt-soaked clothing from his self. 

General Hux, then was no more surprised than his waiting steward had been; to discover his room inaccessible to him.  After a few firm pushes and demands it was opened by the Knight, Kylo Ren.   His face impassive, and haughty when Hux demanded to know what he was thinking by baring the door.  Wrongly assuming that Lord Ren had tried to take the room for himself.  More shock soon following, when he realised that the Knight had placed the girl into his bed and meant her to be the sole occupant.

General Hux had already assumed that the girl wasn’t resistance, for the Knight to have scooped her up from the water.  Healing her; instead of running her through with the immense sword he carried.  However now with her clothing removed and hanging to dry, he realised small similarities between her dress and the robes Lord Ren wore. 

His wife perhaps.  It would explain why he instantly sought to provide her with the best room.  The knight opposite tilted his head.  His darkened curls hugging his high-set cheeks, and dropping wildly onto his shoulders. Suddenly his golden-brown eyes seemed too old, too knowledgeable for his youth.  They seemed to know too much.  Almost as though a threat lay unspoken in them.  One that hinted, that had Kylo Ren had wished those eyes could delve straight into Hux’s soul and bear his darkest secrets.  Already he had seen evidence of witchcraft from the man, and he shuddered to think what else he was capable.

“Not my wife.”

The voice was deep smooth honey; eloquently enunciated and with an accent General Hux could not quite place.  But held suggestions of a well-educated man, again, such a deep contradiction to the disarray of the owner.  The General frowned.  Suddenly at full consciousness of his fear; that yes, this Lord Ren could read his thoughts.  Stopped when he resorted to reasoning and at breath or two later he reasoned with himself that it had all just been a lucky, and deductive guess.  Why wouldn’t he assume she was his wife. 

“She is one of my knights, taken captive by the Resistance I had boarded that ship to get her back.”

A female knight?! Such things were unheard of as a woman being trusted in battle; so she could not be a soldier.  Rather though, that as the Knights of Ren were known to be more of a mystic order.  One that could trace its earliest routes to the protection of The Church of the Force; than the fighting force they were utilized as now.  Perhaps she was simply a nurse; or perhaps a medic.  Therefore, as such held the title by association.  Simply a gifted honour, rather than physical prowess. 

Her being a part of his order; might too explain the destruction he had witnessed the knight wreak havok aboard the ship.  It seemed far too wanton a slaughter to have been carried out purely in the execution of one’s duty.  It made more sense had it been executed in the heat of rage.  Their revenge for taking prisoner, for harming such a delicate and lovely creature as her. 

A shift in logs on the fire had Hux moving to add more fuel to maintain the rooms fight against the winter chill.  Trying to pretend his had not been staring at her.  Whilst he would not at all have been happy to have lost his chamber to the Knight.  He could understand why the lone female needed it, and he hastened to pull together needed supplies to cede occupation of it over to her.  He offered the Knight to bunk with him, in the next-door officer’s dormitory, which to his shock he declined.

“I believe she will not wake easily from her injuries, even with my skills.  So, I will stay with her.”

General Hux had completely forgotten about the blow to her head.  Quickly he offered to send for his surgeon to take a look at her, but the Knight gravely shook his head.  Swiftly declining the offer.

“Our kind do not take kindly to physicians, no matter how good their intentions are.  I have done my best.  Rest assured that she will wake, but her mind will need more time to rest.”

Hux was reminded of the glow from the tall man’s fingertips.  Would a physician then uncover more evidence of something abnormal with the knights, if he assessed the female?  A quick glance at her slumbering form had him seriously doubting that.  The bedding pressed against what he gathered from her bare arms and décolletage; was her naked form. The swell of her breasts below it gave way to the flat plane of her stomach, then lower still the curve of her hips.  It all served to remind him at once how female she was.  His cock stirring at an unbidden thought of how she would look beneath the blankets.

A sharp cough sounded, and the Knight shot him a stern look.  There was no way he realised that Lord Ren was privy to that thought.  Perhaps he was just adept at reading signals of the body.  Either way General Hux, refused neither to address nor hide the blush that tried to take over his face; simply pretending that he had not noticed.  Clutching the loose garments and spare linens to him.  Using them to hide any signs of his quickly dampening arousal from the room. 

Reassuring him as he went, that there was no way he knew that he had been imagining pressing his lips to her own.  Perhaps he though; it was just that he viewed everyone so disdainfully.  The man was eccentric enough he reasoned to himself, as he bid the Knight farewell.  Reminding him that the officers dinner would be served as always at twenty-hundred hours.  But otherwise he would be busy for the day; but please could he be contacted if she awoke.

And he was he ever busy.  A runner had been sent from the harboured ship, to confirm Hux’s suspicions that there were no survivors aboard the ship; that Ren had dispatched them all.  He sent a detailed written report in high galactic code back to the ship’s captain.  Informing him of his suspicions that the men aboard the rowing boat had escaped into the surrounding countryside. Though oddly forgetting to add any details of the female Knight; just that Kylo Ren himself was still here. 

It was therefore an uneventful day.  Though full of tasks and he had forgotten again to eat; reminded only by the rumbling of his stomach.  It was an hour to dinner, he gave his steward instructions to prepare a bath for him.  Assisting him to dress; before leaving to ready himself for dinner.

The seated Knight was an unexpected addition to the table.  Although he had invited The Master of the Knights of Ren, he had not expected the man to show.  Lord Ren offered little conversation to the small table of officers, and when food arrived he ate methodically and in silence.  So, Hux had therefore expected him to decline the offered after dinner brandy at the fireside.  Shocked when instead the knight poured himself a drink.  Sitting himself on the chair closest to the fire.  His head cocked in thought as Hux too thought on the mans actions. 

Lord Ren had not taken the seat closest purely on his rank alone.  But Hux knew; because it offered him the best view of the seated circle of men.  Hux watched him drink.  Lord Ren, sipping slowly from the glass.  As across the room Hux took equally as small mouthfuls of his own.  The men around him drinking fat faster.  Bolstered by talk of their earlier victory.  Lord Ren didn’t correct them, and Hux saw little enough reason to belittle his men’s swiftness to ready themselves for the earlier raid, by adding that it had been Ren who had dealt with the Resistance members.  General Hux allowed them both their celebration and their drink.  Reasoning that it boosted morale, and the landed Resistance members would be soon caught.  Refusing them this, would only lower the men’s spirit. 

If it was loud here, then the cheer that sounded from below meant it was louder in the barracks.  Wincing, Hux avoided thinking about the state each man below would be in the following morning.  From the sounds of it, they too were holding their own impromptu party.  There were guards were posted above and the draw bridge raised for the night.  Again, he reasoned, against his stiff sense of duty; it was a time to be lenient.

Time passed, and a man next to him had dared to approach the Knight.  A petty officer known as Mitaka.  The boy bolstered by the excess brandy.  The knight seemed rudely reluctant to converse with the drunken Petty Officer.  Excusing himself for a stroll along the roofs, embankments.  Hux made a mental note to reprehend the man in the morning.  It would do him not good to remind him of how to approach his betters in his current state; nor would he embarrass the boy too.

One by one, the men seemed to succumb to the effects of drink. Each excusing himself to retire to his room and Hux was finishing his current glass.  Slowly savouring the quiet before having to resign himself to sleeping in the room full of drunken officers.  Tomorrow, he decided that should the Knights be staying; he would change around the bunks.  A curtain could be placed to give him some much needed privacy, and if needed a woman from the nearby town hired for the girl.  His eyelids drooped, and to stave off the coming sleep he took another swig of the brandy. Determined not to retire until the last possible moment; and certainly not before the knight.  Hux knew he wouldn’t sleep well in shared quarters.  He was always too alert to rest well with others nearby, even his own men.

It was therefore a shock that he awoke with a jump sometime later.  Confused as to what had woken him.  The fire had burnt low, almost to embers and ashes.  But tired as he was, he stood.  Ready to be roused to movement it when he heard it again.  The glass next to him shattering to the floor as he jumped, already to running to the source of the noise.  A feminine scream coming from his chambers.  He encountered the Knight on his travels.  Both men sprinting side by side with haste to the woman’s bedchamber.  Frustrated finding it bolted from the inside.  

Hux put his shoulder to it.  Ready to push against it, but the knight was quicker his gigantic frame making the door shudder, groaning in protest.  Two more shoves by both men; and unsurprisingly the hinges gave way. Hux briefly pushed aside, then clamouring after the Knight into the room.

He had expected to find her terrified and cowering.  Not the glorious picture of defiance she presented now.  At some point either Ren had borrowed one of Hux’s nightshirts; or else the Lady herself must have.  It was far too large for her and the neck draped over one bared shoulder, the tails falling to kiss the creamy flesh above her knees.  But to whomever had dressed her, he was severely grateful for now, as she stood balanced atop the bed.  One arm around the terrified boy.  The other pressing a bared blade to his neck, a small trickle of red leaking from it. 

 

     

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Incidentally the fort at Milford Haven is a genuine place. It is a napoleonic naval fort on the south coast of Wales and a beautiful place to stay.


End file.
